Addressed: Are you really what you wear?

by Annie Robson

Does a new dress have the power to change a woman’s life? Thirty-five-year-old Waverley Litchfield, manager of vintage-inspired boutique, Right! A Dress, in Tasmania, is sure that it For fish-out-of-water journalist Holly, in the throes of an eating disorder that’s seen her rapidly drop three dress sizes; For only child Vivian, who has no life – not now that she’s been forced to take on full-time care of her elderly mother; For Fashions on the Field obsessed Tilly, whose biggest claim to fame so far has been falling off the catwalk and ending up in Accident and Emergency; For seriously overweight Raine, whose size is keeping her from being chief bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding; For forty-something Odette, fed up with sweating the small stuff until a brush with breast cancer puts everything into perspective; For young building apprentice Ashleigh, desperately in search of her ‘tribe’, and For Sasha and Farelle, perilously close to losing everything to a runaway shopping habit and an all-consuming career. Singlehandedly, Waverley masterminds an ingenious fashion-inspired event that brings together all these women – and two men – and, incredibly, manages to change each of their lives for the better. But what about Waverley herself? Can a dress possibly cure her of the crippling flying phobia that’s kept her trapped on her island home, able only to dream of Paris, the fashion capital of the world she has long yearned to visit? And how will it help her find love in the process?

395 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 8, 2020

About the author

Annie Robson is a former journalist and communications advisor who now writes fiction.

Annie is personally driven by two more (nice!) ‘f’ words – fashion and fitness.

Fashion underpinned her debut novel, 'Addressed', and fitness – specifically running – is the focus of her new book, 'The Runaways'.

Annie herself has completed many marathons and ultramarathons, as well as countless shorter races, both within Australia and around the world.

She lives with her husband and a menagerie of native wildlife friends on eleven hectares in the Tasmanian bush, in the foothills of Hobart’s iconic kunanyi/Mount Wellington.

And if they’re not at their alpine haven, you can find them exploring the high seas on their floating home-away-from-home, an Alaska cruiser.

Reviews

[Jac · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a wonder to read.
I became so involved in every character I can only hope more stories continue with them!

I've stayed up far too late finishing it that I'm a little tired to now write a review that does this justice.

I felt the style was like a nice ABC drama. A different chapter for a whole new character exploring varied but real issues all tied together with one central character

It was a pleasure to read, cleverly written, different but I also loved the connection to my home Hobart.

Thanks Annie. I couldn't think of a better book to end my year of reading with!

[Rebecca (Spry Knits) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book by debut author Annie Robson. At first you might think this is some light fluffy book about dresses, but it is so much more. The stories of the 8 women and 1 man hook you in and you just want to know more about them, in fact I'd have happily read an entire book about each character.

[Barbara Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun journey through the lives of myriad characters with many current issues. It’s a descriptive journey, and a unique story line. I am quite desperate to see the author’s own wardrobe! I also would like to go dress shopping, but only if it’s a shop just like Right A Dress with a manager like the key character. A terrific first book by Ms Robson. I look forward to more entertainment!

[Sarah Schofield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely sweet summer read: the book I picked to escape the covid mire and to find myself somewhere else. It hit the spot.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘Addressed’ is definitely a page-turner, largely because Annie Robson is great at making you care about her characters and their various, very real-life dilemmas. She doesn’t shy away from hard topics - eating disorders, dementia, being a carer, and addiction.

Despite these dark topics, it’s easy to see from the style of the book that everyone will get a happy ending - and they do, and most of them get handsome boyfriends, to boot. That might feel overly pat or trite, but it works, because it suits the feel-god vibe of the story.

My criticisms are two-fold: first, the author falls into the trap of trying to give too much information at once, creating overly-long sentences. “Ms Firstname LastName of Address, who was X years old and worked as a Profession, was feeling a particular emotion.” A little variation in sentence length, and a little more teasing out of the information, would still help us get to know these great characters without it being quite such an information overload.

Second, I felt uncomfortable with the treatment of the fat character, Raine. We get that Raine hates her body, but it sometimes feels like the author does, too. It’s one thing for Raine to think she has “thunder thighs” and use language of self-loathing, but when the author is engaging in more objective, third person narration, and still litters her sentences with phrases like “she waddled”, “stuffing her enormous fingers” into a big of chips, etc, it starts to come across as if the author is also disgusted with Raine for being fat, and wants us to be as well. It’s a hard topic to do sensitively, and I think that the author doesn’t really manage it (although I love that Raine becomes a power lifter).

An overall enjoyable book, and I am interested to see what the author will do next.